$18.00

The set includes: one hardened steel-wool sharp point, one hardened steel-wool point medium point (both at c. 600-800 grit), one double-ended steel-wool 0.00 grit buffer/polisher and one brass sharp point chisel.

When it comes to new cleaning tools we're hard to impress but in this case these are excellent with three thumbs up!

The variety of shapes are self-explanitory, but here our a few of our observations:

We have found that the two steel-wool tips work fine either on either wet or dry soft dirt-covered coins, although we found that wet is better.

Like normal, we use them in tiny circular motions whenever possible. Apply a dab of your saliva to the surface to keep the dirt in suspension so you can see what is being removed. Rinse in water, spit and repeat.

Similar to our diamond-dusted dental picks, the grit takes a bit of practice, but not much, in this case. After a few minutes with each tool, you'll figure them out. The grit is quite fine but hard. There is no need to bare down with these, trust me. A very light and gentle pressure is all you need.

You can use either the tips or the sides as the case dictates.

As seen in the 'images tab' photo, they are fantastic on silvered coins. The top coin in the photo, a silvered Carinus antoninianus, took us about a half hour. Minimal to zero pressure and lots of spit as a lubricant. The lower coin, a silvered Constans Æ2, arrived semi-cleaned with those pesky concrete-hard, and a bitch to remove, encrustations that pretty-much covered all of the reverse details other than the inscriptions. In this case I used the sides of the pencils, spit and medium pressure, again in circular motions (this may not be necessary, but that's the way I roll). After 45 minutes, with lots of rincing and repetitions and turning to the pencil tips for the detail work, nearly all the concretions were safely removed, with zero harm to the underlying patina/silvering.

The sharp pointed tools work swell on coins with Desert Patina. This was a quicky from our end...just five minutes!

One thing you will notice as you progress is that the sharp-tipped tools will, when used judiciously, actually begin to polish the patina once the dirt/concretions are finally removed. To refresh the fibers, simply use a dull-bladed scalpel (blade down) and lightly scrape upwards from the base to the tip.

The use of brass chisel is again, self-explanatory.

The duel ended 0.00 grit steel-wool pencil is not suggested to be used as a 'duster', but rather as a final buffer/polisher once you're happy with the final cleaning. DO NOT get the ends wet! Whoops, we found out the hard way... During use, the fibers tend to wear away quickly, but no problem. Just grasp the end fibers, turn to the right and pull for more.

We highly suggest this cleaning pencil set. Easy to use and master by beginners or 'old-timers', if you follow our observations as noted above, these tools will soon become necessities in your coin-cleaning tool kit.